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Date Posted: 06:15:16 06/24/02 Mon
Author: moondreamer
Subject: Instinct - Chapter 23 (end)
In reply to: moondreamer 's message, "Instinct" on 11:51:56 05/22/02 Wed

Chapter 23

Luke curled his arm around Sara as he reached with his other hand to Ian. “Brother.” He breathed in anguish.

“Luke.” The words came from Ian’s lips with effort. “Take care of her. Love…her…for I cannot.” Ian clutched Luke’s hand tightly. His knuckles whitening from the force of the pain that coursed through him.

“No!” Luke shouted. “There is still a way!” He stood, ignoring Sara’s gasps and Ian’s grunts of pain he slung Ian over one shoulder and with an amazing example of raw strength began running down the corridor towards Dr. Immo’s lab. Gabe and Sara followed behind him, unsure of his purpose.

The short trip seemed to take forever for Luke. He brushed passed those in his path, sending them careening against the hallway walls. Finally he reached the room with the transfer equipment. He placed Ian carefully on the large platform and began flipping the switches on the machine that stood beside it.

“Where is it? Where is it?” His voice rose in fear and anger as he searched for the proper equipment. Hooking up two translucent facemasks he gently covered Ian’s face with one and then placed the other over his own. He thanked whatever gods existed that Sara had trimmed his beard down, the mask barely fit as it was. After hitting the last button he crawled on to the platform with Ian. Luke reached down and grasped Ian’s clammy hand with his own.

“Relax, brother, relax. All will soon be as it should.” Squaring his shoulders and waiting for his fate, Luke prepared to give up his life and consciousness so that Ian could live. It was a painful process without the proper drugs, but Luke would bear the pain gladly, he only hoped Ian could survive the process.

Sara and Gabe entered the room, Dr. Immo following behind, the commotion having summoned him. The Doctor knew immediately what Luke was trying to do and brushed past Sara and Gabe to aid him. Dr. Immo looked at the controls, casting a quick glance at Luke and Ian he altered a few of the settings.

“Sara.” Ian spoke once again. “Don’t let him do this. He deserves his chance at life.”

Sobbing anew at the sound his choked voice Sara moved towards the platform.

“Ignore him Sara.” Luke spoke harshly, his body twitching as the electronic impulses started shooting through his body and brain. “This must happen.”

Dr. Immo gestured at Gabe. “Help me strap them down. Without the drugs they must be restrained.”

With a horrified look at Sara, Gabe helped the Doctor secure the restraints. Both Ian and Luke’s bodies were convulsing at this point. Their bodies arching up from the steel beneath them. Beneath the facemasks their eyes rolled back in their heads, the whites strangely exposed and glistening. The blood flow pulsing through Ian’s wound slowed.

“Oh my God.” Sara found her voice for the first time, as she finally understood what was happening. “Luke, how can you do this?” She grasped his hand in hers, feeling the connection between them open.

Silently, his voice echoed in her mind. “Because I love you…Sara. You and Ian both. I always have. And I always will.”

“Luke, Luke!” Regrets filled Sara as she remembered her fear of Luke; her confusion over her desire for him. How she wished she had given him her body, if only once, given it to him alone. Such a small thing, in return for his devotion to her and Ian.

Gabe moved over to Sara. He wrapped his arms around her and drew him against him. She rested her weight upon his chest, one of her hands clutching Luke’s, the other clutching Ian’s. “Oh my God, oh my God.” Sara kept brokenly repeating through her sobs.

The sound of her voice ripped through Gabe as he cursed his inability to help her. He didn’t understand totally what was happening here, but after Ian and Luke’s explanation of their creation had some idea of what Luke was trying to do.

With a final convulsion Ian’s body was still. The blood that had left his body a ruby pool beneath him. Dr. Immo reached over and shut down the machine. He gently reached out and removed the facemask from Ian.

“My boy, my poor, poor boy.” Dr. Immo’s voice shook as he brushed the hair away from Ian’s forehead. He then removed the facemask from Luke’s still form. Checking his pulse and other vital functions. He moved the eyelids up and stared intently as Luke’s eyes rolled back down.

“What, what happens next?” Gabe was the one to speak. Sara continued to sob as Dr. Immo removed her clenched fingers from Ian’s dead hand.

“We wait.”

“When will we know if Luke was successful?” Gabe continued to push.

“God help me, I don’t really know. Some of the connections were not made, the masks didn’t seat properly. It could have worked, or it could have just driven him mad.” Dr. Immo shook his head. All of his work over the years had come down to this moment. His shame knew no bounds. What had he been a party to? In his quest for knowledge he had fed Irons’ quest for power. What a waste of lives it had all been.

Sara continued to clutch Luke’s hand. The Witchblade glowed on her wrist as she mentally attempted to make contact with him. Desperately Sara searched for some small spark of life.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, her efforts were rewarded. A flood of warm, loving thoughts poured into her. Washing her fear away and cleansing her in its brilliance. “Ian.” She thought. “Ian, it worked.”

“Sara.” His lips moved apart slowly as he spoke. “Sara, I’m here.”

“Ian!” Breaking from Gabe’s grasp she laid her head on his chest. “Oh my God. I was so scared. But, what about Luke?“

He jerked his arm quickly, snapping the restraints easily. He sat up slowly, putting his arm around Sara and pulling her to him. He looked around the room.

“Gabriel. Dr. Immo. Don’t worry, I’m not insane.”

“It worked then?” Gabriel was the next to speak.

“Yes.” Ian drawled slowly. “It worked, my brother gave his life for me. And it worked.” He looked over at his corpse. Lying on the table next to him, lifeless in it’s pool of blood. “We are here.”

“We?” Dr. Immo questioned sharply.

“Yes Doctor.” Ian directed a sharp gaze towards him. “Isn’t that what you tried to achieve?”

“I…I wasn’t sure it would work.” Dr. Immo stammered as he waited for Ian’s reply. “It was a modification I hadn’t tried yet.”

“What are you talking about?” Both Gabe and Sara spoke. Their questioning gazes swung from Ian to the Doctor.

“We are both here, Sara.” Silently, in her mind, Sara could hear Luke’s voice.

“Together, in this one body.” Ian finished the mental sentence. “Dr. Immo’s modification. Instead of replacing Luke’s consciousness with mine, it added mine to his. We are…together. One being in one body. No longer one being in two.”

Gabe whistled. “What a mind twister.”

Ian/Luke smiled wryly. “You don’t know the half of it.” Moving slowly, he released the rest of the bonds and turned to hold Sara.

“My lady, you will be…alright with this, with us?” His tone was hesitant and unsure.

Sara smiled through her tears. “Having just found you both, I was devastated at the though of losing either one of you. I am just grateful. Just so grateful.” Unspoken in the back of her mind was the thought of all the ways this would change her life, and of how it was finally going to be, joining with the two of them physically. Their bond would be unbroken. And boy, was she going to be tired.

Ian/Luke bent his head and touched his lips to hers in an unspoken promise. In her thoughts she could hear the two of them, whispering to her their love. And Luke, whispering his impatience.

Moving off the table he stood. With one arm around Sara he placed the other around Gabriel and pulled him close.

As they began heading for the door he spoke again.

“So young Bowman, now that I am obviously unemployed, let’s talk about your need for an investor to expand your business.”

Dr. Immo stood to the side and watched as the trio left the mansion. He could hear the sirens as they approached. He would have to move swiftly to dispose of Ian’s body and work on his story for the police. His explanation would not include the truth of this afternoon. When the police finished with him he believed he would leave. Without Kenneth Irons he just might stand a chance at having a life yet. Maybe he could use some of his research to help others for a change, not attempt to manipulate them.

Outside, in the clean air that seemed to blow the last of the pain and fear away from them. Sara stopped and looked up at her love.

“Can this work? Can we really move forward, the three of us?” She questioned slowly.

“Sara.” Ian/Luke crooned down at her. “We can, and we will. Trust us.”

Sara looked up into his eyes, she could see Ian there, and somehow, whirling around in the brown sparks, she could also catch of glimpse of Luke’s devilishness. As their lips met in a passionate kiss, Gabe started to groan.

“Oh man, not again. You guys didn’t come up for air the last time you kissed like that.”

“Guys…Guys…”

Gabe’s words fell upon very deaf ears.

--end--

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